One of the top former editors at Bloomberg has launched his new media venture ‘The Outline’

After a period of buzz and mystery, former Bloomberg and Verge
editor Josh Topolsky's new media venture, The Outline, has finally
launched.

A reference point for The Outline pre-launch had been The
New Yorker for millennials, or the digital age,
which Topolsky
had said "in some ways makes sense, and in a million
ways doesn’t." But The Outline definitely has a commitment to
reaching high-brow readers.

The content of the site will be a mix of deep, reported
stories and "smart aggregation," Topolsky
told The Wall Street Journal. What does that mean? One way is
having a key quote from another publication's article, on top of
a big picture, with a link out.

That all seems more or less what you might get from many
aspiring new media publications.

But The Outline's presentation is more of a departure. Its
website feels like a mixture between a print magazine and
Snapchat's Discover section. It isn't a list of headlines, and
there's a lot of "swiping" on mobile, versus scrolling,
which Topolsky said is by design.

“You won’t see a feed on The Outline,”
he told The Journal. “This is about the swipe not the
scroll.”

The Outline

Also, like Snapchat, it can feel initially overwhelming.
The psychedelic design isn't intuitive, and you'll have to tinker
around a bit to figure it out (again, like Snapchat).

As to advertising, The Outline again takes a nod from both
magazines and Snapchat. On phones, it will feature full-screen
ads the company wants "to
look art directed.” Videos are filmed in three
different aspect ratios, ensuring the right look whether you
visit from your phone, computer, or tablet.